Want To Order Pizza Or Book A Haircut? Now You Can Do That On Facebook

Facebook has become a natural place to ask friends for suggestions for everything from where to travel to where to get a haircut or dinner. But instead of leaving it to users to manually sort through dozens of comments, Facebook is launching new tools to curate those tips -- and make it easier for users to engage with the businesses behind them.

On Wednesday, Facebook announced a new “Recommendation” feature that users can turn on when they make a post asking for advice on places or services to check out. When the feature is on, suggestions from friends will be automatically be placed together on a map based on information in businesses’ “Pages” and saved together. Facebook is also adding a “Recommendations” bookmark in its flagship app, alongside existing tabs for Friends, Events, Groups and Shops, where users can ask other questions or give tips to friends. Facebook is also revamping its “Events” tab and standalone “Events” app to make it easier to find what’s popular among friends locally and events the user has engaged with in the past. The new features begin rolling out within the U.S. on iOS and Android on Wednesday.

A preview of Facebook's new 'Recommendations' feature, launching on Wednesday. (Courtesy of Facebook)

Facebook said inspiration for the tools came from observing the frequency with which users ask friends and local groups for suggestions, and out of a drive to both save users’ time and make it easier for businesses to reach consumers.

“It’s a challenging process to decide where to go and what to do,” said Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president for ads and business platform. “The device should have the solution to this problem -- It has access to all of the people I know.”

“It’s no surprise that Facebook believes in the power of friends and their ability to make our lives better,” Bosworth added.

The recommendation and event updates are one piece of what Facebook described as a larger plan to make it easier to get things done, choose services and engage with businesses on Facebook. The company also wants to make it easier for users to order and pay for services via Facebook. On Wednesday, Facebook also launched tools that allow users to order or reserve a range of servies through businesses’ Pages, such as order food from any restaurant that uses Delivery.com or Slice; request appointments from businesses that use HomeAdvsior, MyTime and some other services; order movie tickets through a Fandango integration; or buy tickets for events through a partnership with Ticketmaster and Eventbrite. Without any integrations, businesses can also add a “Get Quote” button or appointment booking button, which will automatically generate a Messenger thread between the business and user. The buttons are available to all businesses in the U.S., and more third-party services will be added in the coming months, Facebook said.